Gasherbrum II, Attempt. The seven member New England Expedition Team consisted of Maury McKinney, Brad White, Joe Lenteni, A.J. LaFleur, Tom Pollard, Bill Cialdea, and was led by Rick Wilcox. The expedition was the first of the 1996 season. We established Base Camp on May 17. During the next month we established camps at the traditional heights of 5900 meters (Camp I), 6400 meters (Camp II), 6900 meters (Camp III), and 7400 meters (Camp IV). All team members, with the exception of Joe Lenteni, arrived at Camp IV on June 11th. The weather for the last 10 days had been fabulous. During the night of the June 11-12, high winds arrived, the prelude to a major Karakoram storm. On June 13 all members at Camp IV descended through extreme avalanche conditions, high winds, and low visibility to Camp III. The dangerous descent continued on June 14 to safety at Camp I, which was reached after dark. The storm raged for nine days total, and deposited over three meters of snow on the base camp.

Rick Wilcox